Evan D. Sherden, Punishment. (4)

The first strike ended without leaving a single trace. The same could be said for the second strike. As soon as the third strike, which had been drawn from all sides, mercilessly pursued the enemy, Serena had a little realization.

“Are you assessing my powers?”

[You have good eyes. Excellent. You will make a nice addition to our army.]

The Demon Gefrel spoke as he grabbed a monster’s head, which was closest to him. He absorbed all the monster’s vitality and strength, recovering from his fatigue. The Devil Rune on his body started to glow.

“That’s a strange power. Maybe it’s possible because of your Devil Rune, or is it another ability completely?”

[……How interesting.]

Gefrel’s smile was prominent. It was shocking to see her talent as a Monster Tamer, and now he gained a good grasp of her powers after a few bouts.

[If we had met a little later, it would have been quite a threat. I’m glad we bumped into each other now.]

“If it was three years later, I wouldn’t have even given you the courtesy of talking to me.”

Serena sighed and gestured. Monsters from all sides rushed to shield her, and low-ranking Demons, too.

Of course, with her leadership… there was a limit to the number of monsters she could manage at once, thus supplementing every time the monster under her command died.

‘They are too fast.’

How much time would it take for those Demons to wipe out all the monsters here? 10 minutes? 20 minutes?

One thing was certain: even without the monsters, the Demons alone would be enough to leave Sherden in ruins.

“Evan wasn’t making a fuss. I can’t believe a threat like this was lurking and only he was able to foresee it….”

The fourth strike was divided. Serena felt like it’s a good time to start preserving her resources now.

The priority was to stop him from reaching his target.

Serena quickly used her powers to reinforce the monsters protecting her and besieged Gefrel with other monsters. She analyzed how his ability worked and positioned the monsters so that they could hold him off for as long as possible.

[Trying to delay me is just a waste of time.]

Having fully guessed Serena’s intentions, Gefrel just grinned.

[No one can defeat me. I am undaunted.]

“But I believe in miracles.”

That was a lie. Serena did not believe in miracles anymore. There was only one thing she believed in: Evan. The witches and Serena had this in common.

‘Evan, we need you. Come soon…’

If Serena was able to solve the crisis by herself, Evan might finally accept her as his lady.

She was so angry that she was about to cry. However, she endured desperately because the enemy could not catch her. However, all of her attempts were in vain.

[Miracles.]

Gefrel laughed at her words and opened both arms.

[A miracle is…. something like this!]

The Devil Rune etched on Gefrel’s whole body started to dazzle. The black and red magic soared and stretched forward.

Serena felt stunned and manipulated the monsters and attacked him in unison, but all of them turned to ashes and perished.

Everything turned into ashes.

“This doesn’t make any sense……”

[Witness a true Demon. The power bestowed by the Demon King! Child, you shall be one of us soon! That is a true miracle!]

“Never.”

Serena instinctively muttered and gathered the power left in her. Somehow, she managed to band all the monsters in the city together to attack him once more.

However, everyone was fleeing in front of his power. Most of all, her power was reaching its limit.

“The potion Evan gave me….”

[…Oh, my God, is the Shabelka slowing down?]

While Serena was flustered and tried to restore her magic, Gefrel was dumbfounded and opened his eyes wide as he felt the energy of one of the Four Heavenly Kings, the Shabelka, who had invaded Sherden with him, weakening.

[So there is someone stronger than the Shabelka? I shouldn’t have been playing around here. You come with me.]

“Kkkkkkk!”

Gefrel appeared in front of Serena in an instant and grabbed her by the neck. Her necklace glowed and created a protective shield, but it quickly broke down in front of Gefrel’s power.

[That necklace… I remember seeing it. Indeed, was it her talent? However, she is overwhelmingly superior. How strong will she become if she is reborn as a Demon…? I’m really looking forward to it.]

“You’re not going to see that hap—.”

She wanted to curse him more vigorously, but unfortunately, Serena’s physical strength and magic gave in.

Thanks to Evan’s penetration into the heart of the Sherden Dungeon, she still had some energy, but her magic was at its end. Her forehead was covered with cold sweat, her breath suffocated, and her heart tightened.

She wanted to cry. She missed Evan so much.

“Evan…”

[Don’t worry, he’s already dead. Our Demon army sent troops to all three cities, and the troops heading to Pellati are more than the troops who came to Sherden in terms of volume alone.]

“Not quality… but quantity?”

Serena laughed even though she couldn’t breathe properly. The Demon looked really cheerful at the sight.

[Oh, that’s funny. His name is famous, but all he is is another aristocrat. Leading the unit is a pure-blood among the Demons. Even if he’s weaker than me, he’s good enough to sort out Pellati.]

“Oh, thank God.”

Serena was truly relieved. She wasn’t worried about Evan because she thought maybe she was headed for a more powerful monster than this one. Evan could never be beaten. And he would come back to Sherden.

“So, until you come… I’ll hang in here…”

[I thought you were smart, but you’re just a little girl. What’s the matter with you? Anyway, if you become a demon, your weak mind will be fortified tenfold.]

“Ahhhhh, ah…”

Oh, it was really dangerous now. Her whole world was crumbling. She felt numb all over.

When she was very young, she had fallen in an ice lake. It was dark, cold, and stuffy… It felt like that all over again.

However, just before her consciousness gave way to darkness, she could see a darting silhouette in the distant sky.

A smile appeared on her face.

As Evan got closer to Sherden, he felt two overwhelming magical presences. One of them was getting weaker while the other was growing in power. Perhaps they were of the Four Heavenly Kings.

‘It’s crazy. Two of the Four Heavenly Kings together……!’

The Demon Tribe could not move recklessly in the human world. It was possible to make a round trip between the Demon World and the dungeon, but in the process, many Demons died because of the protective barrier between the two realms.

He could only think that this was the Thunderbird Guild’s doing. Did their misdeeds lead to the summoning of two of the Four Heavenly Kings?

No, but this world was wide. There was a good possibility that the Four Heavenly Kings’ summoning ceremony was held somewhere Evan did not know. He clenched his teeth.

‘Can I stand against the Four Heavenly Kings?’

He was confident in his power. However, he was still afraid. The Four Heavenly Kings’ existence was a grave threat in the game. Players found it extremely difficult to defeat them even when playing on the Easy difficulty. And now, if Evan died, he wasn’t going to respawn again……

‘Hold on a second.’

When Sherden’s inner landscape began to go dim, Evan was stunned. He could feel the Devil Rune’s energy.

Evan was tired of dealing with the Devil Rune.

This was not going to be easy….

‘This is……this is…! No, no, no……’

As he moved toward the dungeon city, his mind began to retreat at the same time. Despair was already pouring in before he even faced the enemy.

He could not judge his own strength, but he was intimidated by the unnecessarily accurate analysis of the enemy’s power and the conversion of it into game units. It was all because of his damn cowardly nature!

‘No, no, no. No, no, no.’

Nevertheless, he continued to move forward.

Perhaps the moment had finally come when Evan would face his death? Was it time to meet his destiny as an extra of the Yo-Ma Great War Series?

No, he couldn’t accept death. He had to march on and fight. This wasn’t just a game-world.

It was then that he saw.

“Serena.”

It was a ridiculous coincidence. In Yo-Ma Great War 4, Serena was captured by one of the Four Heavenly Kings, Gefrel, and transformed into a Demon.

Was this how they would end up? Because Evan tried to defy fate, all the scenarios were twisted and pulled, and at the end, Serena was taken by the Demon, and Evan would die as an extra?

“Evan—”

While despair rained down on Evan, Serena saw him and gave a faint smile. That was enough for him. All his anxieties faded away, and he gave in to his natural instincts.

He ran so hard to protect her, the Dungeon Knights, Eric, the Ironwall Knights, and the dungeon city of Sherden. If he is to die, it won’t be as an extra, but a martyr who fought to protect his people.

So far, there had been no meaning in the complex calculations he had made in his head. No matter how strong the bloody Heavenly King was, it didn’t matter. What happened in Yo-Ma Great War 4 didn’t matter to him either.

Ray.

Arisha was right. If she had not confessed her feelings and revealed Evan’s most inner thoughts to him, he would have surrendered to his fears of dying as an extra.

There was no reason to treat it as an absolute truth. It could have been treated as just a piece of information. Take the advantage, avoid the disadvantage, and be prepared for the danger.

Recognize and prepare, yet there was no need to be swayed by it from the beginning. You didn’t have to stick to your role. There was no need, of course, to limit the strength of one’s own power by attaching the role of ‘extra’ or ‘main character’.

Evan was not an extra.

No one could call him an extra.

No one could dominate him.

Those who tried to cross him either met their deaths or ended up joining him.

“Ray!”

[Haa!]

Evan, who shook off all the anguish that was blocking him, finally rushed across the starry sky.

A dark purple blade appeared on his arm, cutting off the Demon’s arm that was holding Serena.